German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered a ray of hope to Greece Friday, stressing that she wanted the debt-burdened country to stay in the eurozone and pledging German help after crisis talks with the Greek prime minister.

"I want to say very clearly ... that Greece is part of the eurozone and I want Greece to remain part of the eurozone. This guides all our discussions," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Antonis Samaras.

"I am deeply convinced that the new Greek government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Samaras, is doing everything to solve the problems that Greece is facing.

"We know that this requires great sacrifices ... and Germany has always said that it will support Greece in this," said the chancellor.

For his part, Samaras pledged to stick to all of Greece's promises to its international creditors and said that he was not asking for more bailout money, but just "breathing space" to implement the necessary spending cuts and reforms.

Samaras was kicking off a two-day trip to northern Europe which will take him to Paris for talks with French President Francois Hollande.